Opposition urges Govt not to privatise railways, restore senior citizen concession
New Delhi (PTI): Opposition members on Wednesday said the government should not privatise Indian Railways as it will hurt the interest of poor people and demanded that concession for senior citizens be restored.
Participating in the debate on the Railways (Amendment) Bill 2024 in the Lok Sabha, Neeraj Maurya (SP) said the government should have sent this bill to an all-party committee for deliberation.
Maurya also said the government should look at ways to monitor the functioning of Railway Board. "Railways is the lifeline of crores of people. Do not take the privatisation route for railways."
Manoj Kumar (INC) claimed that after the passage of the Bill, the government would look for scope to privatise railways.
Bapi Haldar (TMC) demanded that rail ticket concessions to senior citizens, which was withdrawn during Covid, be restored.
Moving the Bill for discussion, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said the efficiency of Indian Railways will improve with the passage of the Bill.
Railways (Amendment) Bill 2024 bill proposes to simplify the legal framework by incorporating the proposals of the Indian Railway Board Act, 1905 in the Railways Act, 1989. This will reduce the need to refer to two laws.
Vaishnaw said the number of rail accidents has come down from 171 during UPA regime to 40 in 2023-24. In the current fiscal, 29 rail accidents have taken place so far.
Also, the Rail Budget has been hiked in 10 years from Rs 29,000 crore in 2014 to Rs 2.52 lakh crore.
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Trump says EU has until July 4 to approve last year's trade deal or it will face higher tariffs
Washington (AP): President Donald Trump has said in a social media post that goods from the European Union would face higher tariff rates if the 27-member bloc fails to approve last year's trade framework by July 4.
The announcement on Thursday appeared to be a deadline extension after the president said last Friday that EU autos would face a higher 25 per cent tariff starting this week. Trump made the updated announcement after what he described as a "great call" with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
Still, the US president was displeased that the European Parliament had yet to finalize the trade arrangement reached last year, which was further complicated in February by the US Supreme Court ruling that Trump lacked the legal authority to declare an economic emergency to impose the initial tariffs used to pressure the EU into talks.
"A promise was made that the EU would deliver their side of the Deal and, as per Agreement, cut their Tariffs to ZERO!" Trump posted. "I agreed to give her until our Country's 250th Birthday or, unfortunately, their Tariffs would immediately jump to much higher levels."
It was unclear from the post whether Trump was implying that the tariff rates would jump on all EU goods or the increase would only apply to autos.
His latest statement indicates he might be backing away from his earlier threat on EU autos by giving the European Parliament several more weeks to approve the agreement.
Under the original terms of the framework, the US would charge a 15 per cent tax on most goods imported from the EU.
But since the Supreme Court ruling, the administration has levied a 10 per cent tariff while investigating trade imbalances and national security issues, aiming to put in new tariffs to make up for lost revenues.
